ORCHARDS. 127 



advantages to the fruit grower are already appreciated here, 

 and should be improved to their utmost extent ; as the 

 fruits of this section can be put in market several iveeks in 

 advance of the fruits of the middle and mountainous sections. 

 The vicinity of large fresh water lakes is also favorable to 

 fruit trees and fruitfulness. Tlie spray that rises from large 

 bodies of water, extracts and expels the frost before the sun 

 rises, and prevents injury to the buds or expanded bloom. 

 This good effect is sometimes lost on the border of lakes in 

 consequence of their being sheeted over with ice. 



Sheltered locations, such as narrow, deep valleys, are un- 

 favorable to fruitfulness. They are liable to extremes of tem- 

 perature, thawing and freezing alternately by day and by 

 night, which changes destroy thQ tender trees, buds, and 

 blossoms. There is said to be a difference of five or six de- 

 grees between such low bottoms and valleys, during the 

 Spring, and the tops or sides of adjacent ridges, where the 

 elevation is not more than 80 or 100 feet. 



A German writer, Schultz, in his work entitled "Reju- 

 venescence of Plants," etc., says, that common salt and chlo- 

 ride of lime contribute greatly to the flowering of plants, to 

 which, however, they can only be applied with safety in 

 small quantities. " Salts of lime," he observes, " appear to 

 produce so nearly the same effect as that of potash and soda, 

 that it is only necessary to place lime within their reach, if 

 there is no deficiency of manure in the shape of general food. 

 Lime ivill in the main promote, in an astonishing degree, the 

 fruiting and flowering of most plants, because calcareous salts 

 promote evaporation and the concentration of the sap." 



These views of Dr. Schultz, are, in the author's opinion, 

 of a:reat value. Coarse salt at the rate of one and a half or 

 two bushels to the acre, as a top dressing on most soils, pro- 

 mote fruitfulness to an eminent degree — and, at the same 

 time, aid in destroying worms and other insects injurious to 

 fruit and fruit trees. Lime has a most poAverful effect on the 

 fruiting of the apple and pear. Some years ago, we made 

 an experiment with lime, which being carried a little too far, 

 proved fatal to a pear tree. In removing the lime and rubbish 



